Sunday, March 2, 2008

When I started this blog, the only thing I was clear about was that it was not going to be one more of the numerous cut and paste jobs that crowd the net. I was not going to fill my space with what others had written elsewhere, adding perfunctory analysis/comments to claim ownership!

When I read the following article, my first reaction was that I should make an exception and post it in full. Then I hesitated, unknowingly giving enough time to Jug Suraiya to publish parts of it in his column inThe Times of India. Notwithstanding this development, after long deliberation I have come to the conclusion that this is one article written by someone else that deserves to be posted here without a cut.

This excellent piece, unpublished to the best of my knowledge, has supposedly been written by one Dr Farrukh Saleem, anIslamabad based freelance Pakistani journalist. This came to me through email like it is possibly still going to many others around the world.

Reading the article will make all Indians feel very proud and all Pakistanis realize that, somewhere, their country has missed a major trick. The author highlights rather dramatically with stunning facts not too well known thatIndia has taken a giant leap ahead of his country. Indians and Pakistanis, he says,have the same Y-chromosome haplogroup, the same genetic sequence, the same genetic marker (namely: M124), the same DNA molecule and the same DNA sequence.

Then what, he asks, is it that the Indians have and the Pakistanis don’t, to explain this huge difference? His answer is simplistic: Indians elect their leaders.

Do Indians really think that the progress being made by their country of late is because of India’s democracy? Some would argue that it is despite democracy! Blistering growth would have started much earlier but for the brakes put by the adoption of socialism which completely stifled growth till Dr Manmohan Singh, the economist, began the process of unshackling the entrepreneurial spirit and skills of Indians in the nineties.

Does it have something to do with the very idea behind the creation of the two nations itself? Is there some truth in the belief thatIndia, rather than Pakistan, has benefited from the separation of the latter from the mother country? Has it something to do with how India and Pakistan have treated religion and governance? Has not Pakistan’s relentless fixation with Kashmir left it with little energy to focus on building the nation? Is not there an unresolved identity crisis that has Pakistan confused even 60 years after it was born?

What is it thatPakistan has and India does not? That is a question that the author should have also asked.

Well, for one,Pakistan has the big ‘O’, Osama! Then Pakistan also has, well, Pakistan, and India doesn’t! Think of anything else?

These, and more, are the questions which Indians, Pakistanis and researchers need to find the answers to. Only then will we get to understand why the two genetic ‘twins,’ as it were, have performed so differently as nations.

It would also be worth remembering that the Chinese, who have as on date beaten bothIndia and Pakistan hollow, have never, ever elected their leaders!

Twenty-five thousand years ago, haplogroup R2 characterized by genetic marker M124 arose in southernCentral Asia. Then began a major wave of human migration whereby members migrated southward to present-day India and Pakistan (Genographic Project by the National Geographic Society; http://www.nationalgeographiccom/ ). Indians and Pakistanis have the same ancestry and share the same DNA sequence.Here's what is happening in India:

The two Ambani brothers can buy 100 percent of every company listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) and would still be left with $30 billion to spare. The four richest Indians can buy up all goods and services produced over a year by 169 million Pakistanis and still be left with $60 billion to spare. The four richest Indians are now richer than the forty richest Chinese.

In November, comes Neeta's birthday. Neeta turned forty-four three weeks ago. Look what she got from her husband as her birthday present: A sixty-million dollar jet with a custom fitted master bedroom, bathroom with mood lighting, a sky bar, entertainment cabins, satellite television, wireless communication and a separate cabin with game consoles. Neeta is Mukesh Ambani's wife, and Mukesh is not India's richest but the second richest.

Mukesh is now building his new home, Residence Antillia (after a mythical, phantom island somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean). At a cost of $1 billion this would be the most expensive home on the face of the planet. At 173 meters tall Mukesh's new family residence, for a family of six, will be the equivalent of a 60-storeyed building. The first six floors are reserved for parking. The seventh floor is for car servicing and maintenance. The eighth floor houses a mini-theatre. Then there's a health club, a gym and a swimming pool. Two floors are reserved for Ambani family's guests. Four floors above the guest floors are family floors all with a superb view of the Arabian Sea. On top of everything are three helipads. A staff of 600 is expected to care for the family and their family home.

In 2004, India became the 3rd most attractive foreign direct investment destination. Pakistan wasn't even in the top 25 countries. In 2004, the United Nations, the representative body of 192 sovereign member states, had requested the Election Commission of India to assist the UN in the holding elections in Al Jumhuriyah al Iraqiyah and Dowlat-e Eslami-ye Afghanestan. Why the Election Commission of India and not the Election Commission of Pakistan? After all, Islamabad is closer to Kabul than is Delhi.

Imagine, 12 percent of all American scientists are of Indian origin; 38 percent of doctors in America are Indian; 36 percent of NASA scientists are Indians; 34 percent of Microsoft employees are Indians; and 28 percent of IBM employees are Indians.

For the record: Sabeer Bhatia created and founded Hotmail. Sun Microsystems was founded by Vinod Khosla. The Intel Pentium processor, that runs 90 percent of all computers, was fathered by Vinod Dham. Rajiv Gupta co-invented Hewlett Packard's E-speak project. Four out of ten Silicon Valley start-ups are run by Indians. Bollywood produces 800 movies per year and six Indian ladies have won Miss Universe/Miss World titles over the past 10 years.

For the record: Azim Premji, the richest Muslim entrepreneur on the face of the planet, was born in Bombay and now lives in Bangalore.India now has more than three dozen billionaires; Pakistan has none (not a single dollar billionaire).

The other amazing aspect is the rapid pace at which India is creating wealth. In 2002, Dhirubhai Ambani, Mukesh and Anil Ambani's father, left his two sons a fortune worth $2.8 billion. In 2007, their combined wealth stood at $94 billion. On 29 October 2007, as a result of the stock market rally and the appreciation of the Indian rupee, Mukesh became the richest person in the world, with net worth climbing to US$63.2 billion (Bill Gates, the richest American, stands at around $56 billion).Indians and Pakistanis have the same Y-chromosome haplogroup. We have the same genetic sequence and the same genetic marker (namely: M124). We have the same DNA molecule, the same DNA sequence. Our culture, our traditions and our cuisine are all the same. We watch the same movies and sing the same songs. What is it that Indians have and we don't?